Mike Wallace on the Spot!

More than fifty years before the legendary journalist's death, Esquire asked five "celebrities" to "turn the tables" on the man we then called television's "rudest interviewer"

Apr 9, 2012

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Excerpted from an article published in the August 1957 issue of Esquire

Mike Wallace's hard-hitting new program,Interview, has soared to national fame on ABC-TV after its brilliant debut as a local New York program. The question constantly asked about Mike has been: "He can dish it out. But can he take it?" To find out, Esquire invited five celebrities who have been roasted by Mike to reverse roles — and to interview him at our editorial offices in New York. The celebrities were: Mary Margaret McBride, nationally loved radio star; Fannie Hurst, American novelist; Abe Burrows, Broadway producer; Al Morgan, author of The Great Man; and Gretchen Wyler, leading lady of Broadway's Damn Yankees. The following is a tape-recorded transcript of the grilling they gave Mike Wallace.

Hurst: Tell me, Mike, do you like to see blood flow? Is this approach pleasant for you?

Wyler: Yes. Are there any prerequisite personality traits for conducting a program like this?

Burrows: She means, we you born for the job? (Laughter)

Mike:No, I wasn't born just for this job! I've done all kinds of interview shows for years.

Wyler: I'm aware of that! The question I'm asking is: What are the traits you think you possess to make you able to do a show like this?

Mike: Curiosity....

Morgan: Hunger! (Laughter)

Mike: A certain audacity....

Morgan: A certain sadism!

**

Hurst: I think the most flagrant invasion of privacy on your show is that your persist and persist and persist in asking questions about religion. By some kind of national inheritance, we just don't wear our religious affiliations on our sleeves. The question is one we don't air. But you seem to have an absolute predilection for it.

Mike: Wouldn't you say, Miss Hurst, that religious motivations are an important part of the make-up of any human being?

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Hurst: Yes, if you could be articulate about it in twenty minutes. You asked if I attended a church. I thought that was an invasion of privacy.

Mike: I don't think anyone in the world would think ill of you if you said, "I just don't want to talk about my religious beliefs."

**

Burrows: How do you feel at the end of a show, when you have triumphed over a guest, licked one, or just twisted one's nose? Do you feel you've had a good show? That you've been a hit tonight?

Mike: I feel good, Abe.... I feel fulfilled when we've revealed a person.

Burrows: Are you ever depressed after it?

Mike: Yes — when I feel we haven't asked sufficiently probing or searching questions, and haven't gotten to the essence of a man's personality.

Burrows: Isn't that really when you run across a guest who has prevented you from running the picador's lance into him?

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